tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88920258036769888392011-09-30T22:16:29.957+01:00A brief & perhaps irreverent look at financial matters from someone who thinks your finances matter.Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-88885465412268390162011-07-28T11:21:00.000+01:002011-07-28T11:21:07.435+01:00

IN a recent, good natured Twitter tête-a-tête with renowned personal finance journalist Paul Lewis I posited the view that an article he had tweeted a link to was not "interesting"; rather it was nonsensical. Paul responded that he would like to see my reasoned critique for such a view. Given that Twitter limits one's musing to 140 characters a reasoned critique is a toughie, so a quick blog

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-38064559085864104402011-01-03T08:59:00.000Z2011-01-03T08:59:56.123Z

NOW that the real inflation indicator (Retail Prices Index, or RPI) is nudging 5% per annum, more and more personal finance commentary is focusing on the need for those in retirement to protect the value of their pension income. Typically such commentary will include casual platitudes to the benefits of purchasing an escalating or indexed annuity with your pension fund. In so doing, you

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-8910381767074264682010-09-08T13:35:00.000+01:002010-09-08T13:35:05.107+01:00

OUR KEY role in helping clients is in protecting them from themselves. By that I mean shielding clients from their own worst impulses, keeping them from making short-term hasty decisions that can have a massively negative impact on their long-term planning and financial well-being. That is easier said than done: it is hard to think of any arena that has as much conjecture, guesswork, estimates

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-15726285832398577352010-06-11T10:02:00.094+01:002010-06-11T12:01:14.660+01:00

ONCE AGAIN panic and hysteria is predominant in the financial media. BP's share price has fallen dramatically in recent weeks for obvious reasons (not helped by criticism of the company from the President of the country that gave us Union Carbide and Piper Alpha). In mid-May BP shares were trading at around 547.6 pence each. At close of business on 11th June they are down to 365.5 pence - a fall

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-40713580094243138682010-05-04T09:01:00.007+01:002010-06-15T16:51:12.166+01:00

HARRY MARKOPOLOS is the man who repeatedly tried to draw attention to the fact that Bernie Madoff's investment fund was a huge Ponzi scheme. OK, not as huge as our Basic State Pension system, nor the largely unfunded public sector final salary promises we have in the UK, but - at US$65 billion, still pretty impressive. His book 'No One Would Listen' is a racy account of how, from 1999 onwards,

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-87520954660708720432010-02-01T14:43:00.007Z2010-02-02T13:38:56.653Z

A RECENT press article covered a chimpanzee in Russia who (apparently) randomly chose eight stocks out of 30 in which to invest.Over the last year the chimp's picks outperformed 94% of her country's investment funds. Of course - and with no disrespect to the ape concerned - this is pure luck. As the commentator in the article says:"It shows that financial knowledge does not play a great role in

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-8238216395317261512009-12-01T11:52:00.005Z2010-06-15T16:50:16.878+01:00

THE old chestnut "Sell in May and go away, come back on St Ledger day" is an empirically proven strategy to successfully time the stock market and thereby achieve long-term wealth and happiness. Or perhaps not.Maybe you know somebody who sold all of their investments in or around October 2007 and who then re-invested fully in mid-March 2009. In so doing they would have avoided most of the

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-68539856272532914742009-09-08T12:58:00.009+01:002009-09-28T20:04:28.851+01:00

THE last 10 years or so have been described as a "lost decade" for investors; the broadest indicator of UK shares - the FTSE AllShare Index - is lower now than it was this time in 1999.That's right; the FTSE AllShare Index (which pretty much includes the share prices of all UK listed companies) has NOT been the place to have your money for the last 10 years. Folklore has it that you would have

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-32201697943529133652009-08-11T11:15:00.008+01:002009-08-28T08:59:25.036+01:00

EXCHANGE Traded Funds. ETFs. The still-quite-new-and-shiny-kid-on-the-block. ETFs allow investors to buy an entire asset class in one share. This share can be bought and sold throughout the trading day and reflects the value of the underlying asset.For example, you can buy an ETF share that tracks the FTSE-100. The FTSE-100 is one of the best known UK stock market indices, comprising the 100

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-72847620893396459962009-07-30T07:04:00.007+01:002009-07-30T21:42:44.867+01:00

AS his five minutes of fame recedes into memory, the BBC's Robert Peston has taken to publishing articles which are starting to smack of desperation. His recent piece is one such example. Here he states the outlandish view that somehow the "markets" were to blame for the credit boom and resultant credit crash and that further government intervention is the answer.An alternative view is that

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-72112614985047702912009-06-26T12:58:00.016+01:002009-07-03T13:48:06.834+01:00

"IF you don't know where you're going, you're never going to get there". No doubt I have butchered this well-known phrase but you get my drift.In a complicated, time-scarce-always-full-on 24-7 Twitter-Facebook-LinkedIn-world, it's very difficult to see beyond the here and now.Struggling with mortgage repayments; putting Timmy & Trinny through private education; running your own businesses or

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-2707161990220548862009-06-01T12:53:00.009+01:002009-06-02T11:15:49.047+01:00

IN my last post, I directed readers to a presentation by Dimensional Fund Advisors. For me, Dimensional represent the acceptable face of investment: a robust methodology; extremely keen charges; a transparent and straightforward way to invest.With-Profits is the other side of the investment world, the Dark Side of investing. With-Profits is where:you give a lump of money to an insurance company

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-29018532956767340002009-05-12T11:45:00.013+01:002009-05-13T16:00:30.154+01:00

THOSE who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, so the saying (nearly) goes. Given the events and unrelenting media noise of the last 18 months or so, one could be forgiven for thinking that we have never, ever seen the likes of such things. Never before have markets fallen so far; banks failed so dismally; Governments and economists got it so wrong, so often. Never has capitalism been so

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-17905889800918541392009-04-09T12:49:00.005+01:002009-06-22T16:50:14.205+01:00

IN a stunning announcement, the BBC have commissioned a new series of Life On Mars.To be entitled "No Line On The Horizon" - named after U2's 2009 album - the series is about a rough and ready policeman who goes into a coma in 1979.On 22nd April 2009 he awakes from his comatose state. Amazingly, he watches in bemusement as the Britain he knew from 1979 (thought to have gone into a permanent coma

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-51721754979144688262009-04-03T12:45:00.004+01:002009-04-04T13:21:09.234+01:00

PUT 100 economists or 100 investment gurus or 100 politicians in a room and, guess what, you can never find that machine-gun when you need it. Also, you can guarantee that, if you listened to each and every one of them (God help you) you would be none the wiser about:What and who got us into the current economic predicament.What the best ways are to get us out of said predicament.Whether "

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8892025803676988839.post-66821207220912157472008-10-12T22:09:00.000+01:002009-07-30T21:26:14.522+01:00

Wow. To be alive in October 2008. What a time. The end of time, perhaps, if you were to believe all that is being said and written right now.Do yourself a favour. Turn off the TV, radio, computer. Forget emails. Ignore bloggers (all bar one, of course). And relax.Really - relax! Capital markets work (by and large). Sure, they go mad sometimes. Like right now. In time you will get your reward for

Nick Lincolnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735689461118691135noreply@blogger.com0